South Korea's inflation exceeds 2%

The data showed a rebound in inflation after two months of slowdown, driven by sharp increases in prices of rice, eggs, meat and eating out. Consumer prices also rose due to higher prices of industrial products and public services, especially when oil prices rose again and the end of the telecommunications fee exemption policy from carriers. The increase was also affected by the base effect - compared to lower prices in the same period last year. Previously, the CPI growth rate of Korea maintained at 2% in the first four months of the year.

Lee Doo-won, director of the Statistics Bureau for Economic Trends, said the end of mobile phone fee exemptions by some carriers was the reason for the year-on-year increase in public services, pushing the CPI in September up to 2.1 percent.

Although prices of vegetables such as radish (down 42.1%), carrots (down 49.6%) and cabbage (down 24.6%) fell sharply by 12.3%, prices of agricultural, forestry and fishery products still increased by 2.0% compared to the same period last year due to the sharp increase in prices of livestock meat (5.4%) and seafood (6.4%).

Notably, the price of sticky rice increased by 46.1% and that of ordinary rice increased by 15.9%. This is a large increase due to the recent increase in rice prices. The prices of livestock products such as pork (6.3%), domestic beef (4.8%) and especially eggs (9.2%) have skyrocketed. This is the largest increase in egg prices in 3 years and 8 months, since January 2022 (15.8%). The prices of some fruits such as apples (5.5%) and seafood such as mackerel (10.7%) also continued to increase.

Prices of industrial products increased by 2.2%, while electricity, gas and water increased by 0.3%. Prices of processed foods (4.2%) with items such as coffee (15.6%) and bread (6.5%) increased significantly, and prices of petroleum products also increased again by 2.3%, of which diesel increased by 4.6% and gasoline increased by 2.0%.

General service prices increased by 2.2%. Public service prices increased by 1.2% due to the end of SKT's mobile phone discount program. Personal services increased by 2.9%, especially the cost of eating out increased by 3.4%, with dishes such as salad/sashimi (6.0%) and coffee (5.0%) being the main factors driving up food service prices.

Source: https://vtv.vn/lam-phat-cua-han-quoc-vuot-muc-2-100251002210532338.htm